Experience:
Organisation:
Name: Kate
Hometown: Cambridge
Destination: Hoi An, Vietnam
Project type: Teaching English
Organisation: Global Volunteer Network
What were your impressions of your destination?
A really friendly, safe, small town on a river with beautiful architecture and a very successful tourist trade in taylor-made clothing (bad for the bank balance...)
Was the work interesting and challenging?
Yes. I taught two English classes a day in a small orphanage and also assisted with pronunciation and vocab in one evening class a week in a school. The classes in the orphanage were small but I taught them alone and had to come up with ideas and lesson plans for them by myself which I found very challenging at first, never having done anything like this before, but it became much easier very quickly. The volunteers that were already there when I arrived and the woman who lives there and organises the Hoi An branch of the volunteer organisation were extremely supportive and helpful. The orphanage classes were extra classes, not school lessons, so maintaining the children's interest was very challenging at times. The evening classes weren't challenging at all. I was simply there to help the students with their pronunciation and with English phrases. Every Friday night is Bingo night at the orphanage which allowed us to get to know the children better and was great fun!
What was your accommodation like? Did you feel comfortable and welcome at all times?
The accommodation was in a house in the centre of the town. Nothing particularly fancy but it was comfortable and I felt very welcome. All the meals were cooked for me by a hired cook and the fact that I am vegetarian wasn't a problem at all - the food was delicious! All the volunteers were provided with a bicycle to use while they were there - used to get to the orphanage (a 3 minutes bike ride away from the house) and the school (5 minutes in the other direction) and also used in our spare time, of which we had plenty.
Were you happy with the organisation and the staff that were responsible for you during your stay?
The organisation was reasonable, not amazing. I wasn't told a huge amount about my teaching role (what I'd be teaching, what age group, whether I'd be teaching alone etc) before I actually got there but my emails were replied to promptly and I felt very well looked after during my stay.
Do you feel that you got value for money on the project?
Yes, I thought it was definitely worth the money, and I had such a fantastic time that I actually stayed a month longer than I had originally intended
Would you recommend the project to others?
Yes
